Growing Up Irooni: Gisue Hariri on Nurtured Imaginations and Building Bridges in a Male-Dominated World

Gisue Hariri and her sister Mojgan are absolute heroes of mine as you’ll hear in the interview- I first learned about their practice as an architecture student at the University of Texas. They were one of the very few female led firms that we learned about in architecture school as it remains a very male dominated industry. And I was even more ecstatic to learn that they’re Iranian women. Every time I would visit New York City, I’d make sure to visit a coffee shop they designed there, and would leave feeling incredibly inspired.

Gisue was the first person I contacted when deciding to live in New York this summer, and she graciously invited me into her own for a wide-ranging discussion about everything from finding inspiration growing up in a small town in Iran, her ambitious plans to study in the United States and return with a world-class education to make Iran better, to how she and her sister pivoted had the confidence to begin their own firm in the competitive New York landscape after the Islamic revolution thwarted their plans to return to Iran to much much more.

I could have talked to Gisue for hours, but we managed to pack a lot into the short time we did have! Please enjoy the interview.

Related Links:

Gisue Hariri on Instagram

Website of Hariri and Hariri Architecture